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Road rage chase winds through Fargo-Moorhead

FARGO—Two people were arrested following a road rage encounter this week that led to a chase on Fargo-Moorhead roads that court documents say was punctuated by two drivers ramming each other's vehicles.

According to Cass County District Court documents:

The trouble started about 5:45 p.m.Tuesday, Aug. 7, when dispatchers began receiving reports of two vehicles driving on grass and ramming one another. One caller told dispatchers both vehicles ran a stop sign in Fargo, and they were going about 70 mph when they nearly hit the caller.

At one point, one of the drivers involved, who was driving a red car, phoned authorities to report that he was following a white pickup that had rammed his vehicle in Moorhead.

A short time later a Fargo police officer noticed a white pickup and a red car traveling on University Drive in Fargo and began following the vehicles after activating the squad car's lights and sirens. Neither vehicle stopped immediately, but eventually, the red car stopped while the white pickup continued to drive away.

The driver of the red car, who was either 16 or 17 years old and was not named in court documents, told police the incident began in Moorhead when the white pickup cut him off in traffic at a high rate of speed.

The driver of the car said when the vehicles reached a stop light, he and a passenger left their car to confront the pickup driver. The driver of the car said words were exchanged, and he and his passenger returned to their car.

He told police the pickup then backed up and rammed his car before driving off. The driver of the car said he pursued the pickup because it had damaged his car, according to court documents.

The driver of the car was arrested on suspicion of reckless endangerment, fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle and possession of marijuana, and was taken to juvenile detention.

West Fargo police found the white pickup in that city, and the suspected driver, Robert Manuel Ortiz Sutton, was found in Moorhead by Moorhead police.

Sutton told police the incident started in Moorhead, and that he feared for his life because the other driver had a gun, which he described as possibly a .22 caliber handgun.

He said the driver of the car kept ramming the back of his pickup as he tried to get away.

Sutton was arrested and later charged with felony reckless endangerment and misdemeanor counts of fleeing a peace officer and criminal mischief. Court records did not list an attorney for him.

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